Tag: Sustainable Snowboard

SnowSports Industries America’s Snow Show wrapped up for another year this past week and the overwhelming buzzword of the show was sustainability. This isn’t surprising, consumers are becoming more and more conscious of how their purchasing decisions affect the world around them. It’s just bad business for companies not to at the very least have a cute little section of their website dedicated to that particular shade of green that lets the world know they recycle. But how many companies truly embrace those twisty bendy green arrows?

The traditional manufacturing of snowboards, skis, surfboards, anything that brings the stoke, is pretty gnarly for the environment. This is ironic as stoke as an industry relies so much on pristine nature to bring in the bucks. Enter Niche Snowboards.

Niche has partnered with The Mothership; one of the world’s most environmentally friendly and sustainable factories and the world’s most environmentally friendly snowboard factory. The facility is 100% river powered by hyrdo-electricity and emits zero CO2 emissions thanks to electric cooling and NH3 natural gas heating. In addition, the factory uses 98% locally sourced materials, reducing transportation emissions and energy used.

For the 2017/18 winter season Niche is releasing 100% waste-free snowboards, reducing their already impressively low manufacturing eco-footprint. A new system developed at The Mothership creates resin from any waste plastic material, allowing 100% recycled hard plastic to be used in their board construction. In addition to being waste-free and featuring a number of other eco-friendly construction techniques, the 17/18 boards incorporate a flax based fiber stringer, allowing for more pop while dampening the vibration and reducing board chatter.

We’re really impressed with Niche Snowboards for putting their money where their mouth is and committing to being eco-friendly and sustainable. We know where our next snowboards are going to be coming from.